Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Oh, You Noticed

The dude and I recently saw Hello, My Name is Doris. In the movie, Sally Field's Doris is swanning for a much younger man and, in hanging around with him, her "vintage" becomes hip. In the hands of a lesser actress, Doris could have been completely ridiculous. But Field makes Doris charming and compelling.

I've been meaning to respond to Sanya Burgess's Sunday (London) Times article "I'll be Darned - Sewing's Trendy." Which demonstrates how the old lady craft, taken up by the hipsters brings cross-stitch from the ridiculous ("grannies and kittens and puppies!") to the hip (twenty year olds cross-stitch in bars!).

I just wish these journalists had the sympathy of a Sally Field so they could elevate their articles. Instead of relying on the old granny foil, how about really understanding what you're talking about? If you're looking for patterns beyond the puppies and kittens, how about going to a dedicated cross-stitch store rather than a big box craft store? And I'm not talking about Sew and So. I just went there because they are specifically mentioned in the article since 300,000 of their visitors (they don't tell you how many total visits) are between 18-34. Big.Box.Craft.Store. (Which have their place! But don't tell me you don't like their stock therefore cross-stitch is for old ladies.)

The other evidence they give for young people getting into "needlecraft" is that they are "beating their grandmothers to the best sewing machines and cross-stitch sets." The sewing machines are in bright colors, which apparently attract young people. (Ooh, shiny.)

I had a woman at work tell me I look like an old granny sitting in my cubicle cross stitching during my lunchtime. At the time, I was working on a 'bless this house' type design with a Star Wars bent (it says "Bless this wretched hive of scum and villainy"), which I thought made it extra funny.

One of the things I'm enjoying about my own re-discovery of cross stitching is the blogs and Facebook pages where I see such a huge range of interests, and no one is wandering around being critical or snide about peoples' differing tastes in designs. It's all "love it!" and "pretty!!!" and "cool!!" and "beautiful stitching!!" etc. And it's honest! We can appreciate and love things that aren't our own personal taste, probably at least partly because we appreciate the work and time that goes into them. It's great.

I'm a grandma who's been doing needlework since I was a teenager, crossing through five decades of my life. During all that time, there's been no shortage of materials to appeal to my changing tastes. Do the people who write about stitching talk to actual stitchers?

Glad to hear some more good news about our obsession getting more popular. I think the fact that all the young people are online have helped all crafting to get more popular and that's all good. Too many uninformed people think of cross-stitching as still back in the 1980's with ducks and country themes and they don't realize the diversity and complexity of what is available for us. Thanks for keeping us informed on the trends! Your projects are looking good in your recent posts.

"Florence Watts is addicted to cross-stitching" is the lede and yet in the photo, she's knitting/crocheting. And those British newspapers are tough - not even 5 or 10 free article views before subscribing?

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